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Published: April 2, 2009
“Fetal containers”
Obama nominee’s views on abortion come under fire from pro-life leader
The president of the Susan B. Anthony List has characterized as “bizarre” the views of pro-abortion activist Dawn Johnsen as a vote nears in the U.S. Senate on her nomination as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
 "Dawn Johnsen does not represent mainstream America or the type of common ground abortion policy President Obama promised this nation," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. "Her bizarre characterizations of pregnancy as 'slavery' and mothers as 'losers in the contraceptive lottery' expose an unacceptable disdain for commonsense abortion restrictions and motherhood in general. Furthermore, Johnsen's opposition to existing federal restrictions like the ban on partial-birth abortion casts doubt on her ability to perform her duties faithfully as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel."
Across the country, Susan B. Anthony List members expressed outrage at Johnsen's nomination, sending over 26,000 letters of opposition to their U.S. senators. On March 19, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination by a vote of 11-7.
While Johnsen served as legal counsel for the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (now NARAL Pro-Choice America), she authored numerous legal opinions rejecting any and all restrictions on abortion.
Some notable quotes from Johnsen's amicus curiae brief in the case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services include:
Abortion restrictions 'reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers.
The argument that women who become pregnant have in some sense consented to the pregnancy belies reality... and others who are the inevitable losers in the contraceptive lottery no more 'consent' to pregnancy than pedestrians 'consent' to being struck by drunk drivers.
The experience [of abortion] is no longer traumatic; the response of most women to the experience is relief.
The Susan B. Anthony List is a nationwide network of Americans, over 154,000 residing in all 50 states, dedicated to mobilizing, advancing, and representing pro-life women in politics. Its connected Candidate Fund increases the percentage of pro-life women in the political process.
(Source: Christian Newswire.)
Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 3:17 AM By mlizzy
The experience [of abortion] is no longer traumatic; the response of most women to the experience is relief.
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I do not believe Dawn Johnsen is correct in the above quote. There can be no relief in ending the life of your own child. She may be referring to those that have not come to terms with what they have done ... they push back the Truth so they can live another day seemingly without pain; however, at some point in time (sometimes it takes decades), they too, will realize they have murdered their child, and then, only those darkest of souls will still actually claim to have experienced relief through abortion. I was told I would experience "relief" as well. In fact it was the ONLY thing the "counselor" told me. Thirty-one years later, I still shed tears. I miss my child, and would like nothing more than my testimony of pain to help another unexpected expecting mother to think twice and then go in the direction of life; for her baby and for "her" as well.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:21 AM By Charles O'Connell
The Cure of Ars reminded us that reality is how God sees things: 1st Timothy 2:15 says "[women] will be saved through motherhood, provided [they] persevere in faith and love and holiness, with self-control." I made the acquaintance of an elderly lady, at that time 85-year-old Mrs. Patricia W., who had eight children, among them a holy Catholic priest, Father John of the Oblates of St. Joseph. Mrs. W. had an absolute glow about her, a youthfulness beyond any constraint of years, the beginning of her eternal heavenly spring-time already coming upon her in her waning years in this temporary, mortal vale. Patricia and others like her will wear a crown forever in heaven with the children she has brought into the world as most precious jewels continually surrounding her. I class women who bring the saved to life and form them in God's holy destiny for them, as full peers with those who evangelize and bring to the life of faith converts from darkness. These are heroes in every way equal to pro-lifers who assist in saving children and helping abortionists come out of darkness into the light of God's sanctifying grace. With prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the faithful can help save even the Dawn Johnsens of this poor world. How will God hold up these heroes for all of created humanity, the just and unjust, to see on the last day when all things are set aright!
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:57 AM By Brian
Pray for the intercession of God, and for the next election to CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT!
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 5:57 AM By Ron
Ms. Johnson is just another in a long list of amoral characters sent to advance Obama's culture of death. I pray that God will help us stop this slide down the slippery slope lined with the bodies of the millions of babies murdered by the culture of death. God Bless.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 6:47 AM By Penitential Ski Ven
I am at a loss for words. I don't even know where to begin. This is the end result of our elections. How can anyone knowingly vote for this? God help us.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 10:54 AM By Camille
How do women such as Johnsen think that children get born into this world? How shall they be born in the future when all women are released "from this slavery?"
Where will the female women come from in order to enjoy all these so-called non-reproductive freedoms?
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 3:58 PM By JLS
Once Adam and Eve chose their station in creation, the first Commandment out of God's mouth was to go forth and bear children. Jesus told the devil that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God ... namely ... well ... the bearing of children. To defy this command is to defy God in the most elemental way. Now, if it were easy to bear children, then there would have been no need of a command to do so.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:51 PM By Where are they?
Where have all the Catholics for Obama gone?! Anybody else notice their disappearance; except of course for Kmiec. YOU Catholics who voted for Obama have a share of the blame for the appointment of this radical from reality, and share in all that she accomplishes in her position.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 4:57 PM By Elizabeth
EVERYONE-
CALL YOUR SENATORS RIGHT AWAY!!!!!
OTHERWISE, WE HAVE NO ONE TO BLAME BUT OURSELVES.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 5:19 PM By Fr. M.P.
What else would one expect from an Obama supported person? How cold and callous these pro-death people are. Pray for them and fight their evils in the public square.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 5:33 PM By Eibhlin R
I salute you Charles O'Connell your gentle words touched me. Regarding: "the Dawn Johnsens of this poor world" I sense a broken-ness if you will, a deep, painful wound which may explain the vitriolic comments. We all need pray, we are all on a journey, only some of us know that what we are seeking is God - ["We seek God alone" - Don Divo Barsotti cfd. Firenze.].
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 9:09 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
What does Doug Kmiec have to say about this?
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founder & Chairman
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 9:46 PM By garvan
I wrote earlier that Professor Douglas Kmiec would probably support Dawn Johnson. After all, this is what he said to U.S. News reporter Dan Gildorf on March 10: "With regard to Secretary designate [Kansas governor Kathleen] Sebelius, I believe she is a highly capable and respected administrator who fully believes in the protection of human life at all its stages . . .." What planet is the professor living on? This is the same Governor Sebelius who gave cover to George Tiller, the infamous abortionist who specializes in 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions. Her anti-life record as governor is well documented. Beam me up.
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Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009 10:07 PM By JLS
Well, of course, Barrister Kmiec would support this mad woman (Nero's modern counterpart). After all the whole point of rallying Catholics to this Obama regime is because it will reduce abortions. Doesn't anyone see the logic of it? It's so clear. It's a brilliant plan, although the details are not quite clear to me yet. In fact, I fully expect genius Kmiec to begin a new movement to convert the devil to Catholicism, by first installing him as world ruler. Why didn't any of the saints ever think of this? It's so perfect a way to go. Put the worst of the worst in charge, and everything will get better.
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Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 6:43 AM By Peter
JLS - From a Catholic perspective, what would be the point in making child bearing so difficult that it required a primary command from God to comply? If that was the most basic Godly expectation of Adam and Eve, why not make child bearing easy in the first place? Why would God set the stage, so to speak, for failure prior to being cast out (assuming that the pain of child birth existed prior to and is not the result of original sin)?
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Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 2:56 PM By JLS
Peter, it is simple; just read Genesis and see for yourself.
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Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 4:04 PM By Talithia Kumi
Oh!
Thank you for that tribute, Charles O'c, about lovely Mrs W.
YES WE MUST FIGHT! In the public square; make those calls send those letters; respectfully bring up such topics in conversation. I don't hear the 'good' catholics who voted in the MURDER MACHINE saying much. Shame on you. SHAME!
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Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 5:44 PM By John F. Maguire
In reply to JLS: Failing to distinguish between (a) the expectable enmity between Catholics and abortocrats,
and (b) "absolute" enmity against President Obama (absolute enmity is always a sin), your post spins a preposterous *ad diabolum* fantasy wherein a Pepperdine University law professor is imagined as about "to begin" a project to -- PER IMPOSSIBILE -- "convert the devil" to the Church. The supposition of this fantasy -- which, JLS, you impute to the law professor ("Put the worst of the worst in charge, and everything will get better") is heretical. Why so? In the first place, Christ definitively defeated Satan by his death on the Cross. In the second place, what progress is permitted to Satan by God does not gainsay the words of the Mother of God: "In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph."
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Posted Monday, April 06, 2009 10:04 AM By BeauZeau
She didn't get to be high up in the NARAL pecking order for no reason. This woman comes across as a monster. in my opinion, she hates God, hates nature, hates babies. for Obama to appoint a former NARAL executive, especially one as extreme as this person, tips his hand that he is driven by an extreme pro-abortion agenda - no surprise to those who followed his earlier career.
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Posted Monday, April 06, 2009 1:49 PM By Margaret Faustina
It would seem that bizarre has actually become the new normal in America these days. In the end the Immaculate Heart of Mother Mary will triumph. "Be not afraid."
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Posted Monday, April 06, 2009 5:17 PM By Anne
Another Cruella who has sold her soul and femininity for political gain. Perhaps her father left the family when she was young, as has happened to some of these radical women, but that is no exuse to take it out on the unborn children. Yes, we do need to pray for her, but we don't need her in office.
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Posted Monday, April 06, 2009 9:57 PM By JLS
Yes, such as these are skewed views of life on planet earth; and by shutting the eyes and ears to God, these warped souls only intensify their spiritual dementia at every turn they make.
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